252 Groups September 2016, Week 1
Small Group, K-1
Family Unties
Bible Story: Family Unties (Joseph Sold by His Brothers) • Genesis 37, 39:1-2
Bottom Line: When you think you’re alone, you can trust God is with you.
Memory Verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5, NIrV
Life App: Trust—putting your confidence in someone you can depend on.
Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.
GET READY
Prepare ahead of time for Kindergarten – 1st grade Small Groups this week:
Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Choose one or both of these activities.)
Early Arriver
· An offering container
· Paper
· Crayons or markers
Name that Family Member
· Family pictures created in Early Arriver
Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Choose as many of these activities as you like.)
* If you don’t have time to do all these activities, be sure to do activity #2.
1. Me and My Shadow (application activity / possible environment-wide activity)
· Flashlight
· Smart phone or other device with Internet access (optional)
* 2. Joseph’s Life Mural: Part One (application activity / review the Bible story)
· A large piece of butcher paper at least 5 feet in length (Note: You will use this each week this month.)
· Print the “Story Titles: Week 1” Activity Page and cut apart; each Small Group needs Week 1
· Paper clip
· Markers or crayons
· Construction paper or fabric scraps
· Yarn
· Scissors
· Glue
3. Target Practice (memory verse activity)
· Bean bag; 1 for each Small Group
· Masking tape
Prayer
· No supplies needed
Family Unties
Bible Story: Family Unties (Joseph Sold by His Brothers) • Genesis 37, 39:1-2
Bottom Line: When you think you’re alone, you can trust God is with you.
Memory Verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5, NIrV
Life App: Trust—putting your confidence in someone you can depend on.
Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.
Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Small Groups, 15 minutes)
Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today’s story.
Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group for the first time. Pray specifically for the kids you know are struggling with friendships or walking through tough situations at home. Ask God to make His presence known to these kids and that they would trust that He is always with them.
1. Early Arriver Idea
What You Need: Offering container, paper, and crayons or markers
What You Do:
· Encourage the kids to place their offerings in the offering container.
· Hand out a piece of a paper to each child.
· Ask them to spend a few minutes drawing a picture of their family, including pets.
· Once finished, ask kids to share their pictures and talk about the people and pets in their families.
2. Name that Family Member
What You Need: Family pictures from Early Arriver
What You Do:
· Ask the kids to select one person in their family picture and pretend like they’re that person.
· They can use words, but tell them not to say who the person is. The other kids have to try to figure out which family member they’re impersonating.
· Kids can place the picture they drew on the floor in front of them for the rest of the group to reference.
· Try to give every child an opportunity to play!
What You Say:
“I love learning all about the people in your family! [Transition] In Large Group today, we’re going to hear a story about a family with LOTS of brothers. Are you ready? Let’s go!”
Lead your group to the Large Group area.
Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Small Groups, 25 minutes)
Create a safe place to connect and learn how the Bible story applies to real life experiences, through interactive activities and discussion questions.
1. Me and My Shadow (application activity / possible environment-wide activity)
What You Need: Flashlight, smart phone or other device with Internet access (optional)
Note: If you choose to do this inside and lower the lights, make sure this activity is first!
What You Do:
· (Note: If you have a small number of kids in your group, you might consider making this a classroom-wide activity. If it is a sunny day and you can take the kids outside, that would be even better!)
· Lower the lights in your room.
· Turn on the flashlight and hold your hand up, placing it about 6 inches in front of the flashlight.
· Use your hand to make a shadow puppet on a nearby wall.
· Ask the kids what they see.
· If you go outside, let the kids find their shadow and see if they can outrun it.
· Talk about shadows and how they are formed. Explain that a shadow occurs when your body comes between the rays of light and another object.
· Optional: If you have a smart phone or other device, show this cute video of babies discovering their shadows for the first time. http://bit.ly/1XPOyFg
· Let the kids take turns creating shadows on the wall with their fingers or changing their shadow on the ground as they lift their leg, arm, wiggle, etc.
What You Say:
“You guys made some awesome shadows! When you’re outside in the bright sunshine, if you stand in front of the light, you can see your shadow. And when that happens, you can’t outrun it no matter how hard you try. Your shadow is always with you. Well, guess what? Even if you think you’re alone, you really aren’t. Just like you can’t outrun your shadow, God is always with you. He was with Joseph, even when his brothers sold him off to those traders. Joseph wasn’t really alone. And you aren’t either. Every time you see your shadow this week, I want you to remember the truth that you can trust God because He is always with you. [Bottom Line] When you think you’re alone, you can trust God is with you.”
* 2. Joseph’s Life Mural: Part One (application activity / review the Bible story)
What You Need: A large piece of butcher paper (at least 5 feet in length), “Story Titles: Week 1” Activity Page, paper clip, markers or crayons, construction paper or fabric scraps, yarn, scissors, and glue
What You Do:
· Roll out the butcher paper and use a black marker or crayon to divide it into four equal sections.
· Explain to the group that each week, you will add to the mural as you learn about the different parts of Joseph’s life.
· Roll the mural back up so that only the first section is available for the kids to use. (Use the paperclip to hold the mural roll in place.)
· Glue the “Story Titles: Week 1” Activity Page to the top of the first section.
· Review today’s Bible story using the points below. (Let kids fill in with details they remember from the story.)
1. Joseph’s father, Jacob, gave him a special coat. His brothers were jealous.
2. Joseph told his brothers and father about his dreams. Dream 1: While gathering sheaves of grain, the brother’s sheaves bowed down to his. Dream 2: The sun, moon and 11 stars bowed down to him. His brothers became even angrier.
3. Joseph went to visit his brothers. They threw him into a dry well then sold him to some traveling traders, ripped his coat, covered it with goat’s blood, and told Jacob a huge lie that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.
· Ask the kids to gather around the butcher paper and choose one part of today’s Bible story to illustrate in the first section of the mural.
· They may use any of the supplies provided to create their part of the mural. For instance, the scraps of fabric or construction paper can be used to create Joseph’s coat. The yarn can be used for hair or the sheaves of grain.
What You Say:
“Yikes! Would you say things are going well or things are going bad for Joseph? At this point, things are definitely NOT going well. Joseph is on his way to Egypt as a slave. He has no family or friends in Egypt and no idea what might happen to him once he arrives. But was Joseph really alone? No way! God was with him. [Make It Personal] (Tell the kids about a time when you faced a difficult situation and felt all alone. How did God remind you that He was with you? What happened? Remember to keep your example age appropriate.) [Bottom Line] When you think you’re alone, you can trust God is with you. And this month as we learn about Joseph’s life, we’re going to see that God had an amazing plan for Joseph. I can’t wait to learn all about his life together. Joseph trusted that God was with him every step of the way. We can definitely learn a lot from Joseph’s life story.”
3. Target Practice (memory verse activity)
What You Need: Beanbag, masking tape
What You Do:
· Using the navigation tips below, help the kids look up Proverbs 3:5 and read it together.
Finding verses with kindergartners: Guide kids to open the Bibles to the marked page. Point to the word Proverbs at the top of the page as you say “Proverbs” aloud. Then guide kids to find the big number 3 on the page. Explain that this is the chapter number. Finally, guide them to look under the big 3 for the little 5; this is the verse number. Tell them to leave their finger on the verse as you read the verse aloud. Then lead everyone to say the verse together.
Finding verses with 1st graders: Guide the kids to open their Bibles to the front and find the table of contents. (Hold up a Bible opened to the table of contents to show the kids what the page looks like.) When the kids find the table of contents, lead them to find Proverbs in the list under “Old Testament.” You can help by telling them that Proverbs starts with the letters P-R. When the kids find Proverbs, lead them to look at the page number beside the word. Explain that the number tells them on what page they can find Proverbs. Help the kids find the page. When they find Proverbs, explain that the big numbers on the page are the chapter numbers. Help them find chapter 3. Explain that the small numbers are verse numbers. Help them find verse 5 in chapter 3.
· Use the masking tape to create a target on the floor. Create three concentric circles or squares.
· Use the tape to mark a small starting line about two feet away.
· Line up the kids and let them take turns tossing the beanbag at the target. (To keep interest high, allow two or three kids to throw at the same time.)
· If they make it anywhere within the target, lead the group to say the memory verse together.
· If they land in the center, they can point to you to say the verse.
· Repeat so that each child has a turn throwing the beanbag.
· Adaptation: If you don’t have enough space in your room for each group to have their own target, make a couple targets that groups can either rotate to or share as they do the activity together.
What You Say:
“That was a fun carnival game! And as a bonus, we learned our memory verse too! Proverbs 3:5 is one of my favorites. We can trust God because He is in control. He made us and He knows what’s best for us. Do you see the part where it says, ‘lean not on your own understanding’? That means that we don’t have to have all the answers or figure everything out. All we have to do is trust that God is with us and His plan is the BEST plan. So remember, [Bottom Line] when you think you’re alone, you can trust God is with you.”
Pray and Dismiss
What You Need: No supplies needed
What You Do:
· Remind the kids about looking out for their shadows this week. When they see their shadow, they can know that God is always with them.
· Pray together as a group and ask God for help remembering that even if you feel like you’re all alone, you can trust that God is right there with you.
What You Say:
“Heavenly Father, thank You for the story of Joseph. Thank You for reminding us that even when things look bad or when we feel all alone, we really aren’t. Help us to remember that You are ALWAYS with us, just like You were with Joseph. Help us to trust You, God. We love You. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”
As adults arrive to pick up, pass out Parent Cue cards. Tell their parents to ask kids what they learned about their shadows this week and how the shadow can remind them that God is always with them. Give each child a GodTime card.
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